Thursday, March 16 2006 19:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: A day after the Congress spurned Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee's appeal for poll adjustment between the two parties for the coming assembly elections in West Bengal, Defence Minister and PCC chief Pranab Mukherjee today (Mar 16 2006) ruled out local level understanding and said that the CPI(M)'s charge in this regard had no basis.

"There is no question of a covert understanding between Congress and Trinamool Congress after the Congress rejected the appeal by Mamata to join hands with her party," Mukherjee told sources here.

Congress had never entered into secret understanding with any party, he said adding "I do not care what CPI(M) is saying. It may be their assessment, we never indulge in such kind of things."

He said Congress was eager for either seat adjustment or alliance with Trinamool Congress provided it severed links with the NDA. "It is the stated policy of the Congress not to have any truck with communal forces," he said with reference to Trinamool's ally, the BJP.

Asked whether Congress refusal to join hands with Mamata Banerjee in an anti-Left combination would help CPI(M) in the forthcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, he said "it is a multi-party system. There is no anti-Left or pro-Left in a multi-party political system."

Asked whom the Congress-led United Democratic Alliance, which comprises a string of smaller parties, would project as chief ministerial candidate, he said "you will come to know as soon as the alliance releases its manifesto."